29 March 2008

baby steps continued...

Thank you friends for your encouragement and support. Thanks particularly to you Joleen for telling me that my house isn't as bad as I "see" in my head. It helps that we have been to each others homes and see that we aren't pigs but "collectors" as you say.
BUT, I KNOW that I need to get a grip on some of this. You should WANT to be in your home and I don't. Today I took a big step. I told my husband about my conversations with Donna & Holly yesterday, told him that I want our home to be a nice home that we aren't embarrassed to have friends over to and and that it made me feel bad about myself. I told him that I need HELP! I was in tears by the end of our short conversation. ( little pitchers, don't you know?) Bless his heart, I forget how much I can lean on him when I need him. I get too busy hiding in my hole and forget he is on my side. He has been totally supportive and as of this writing at 11:50 we have 4 bags of donate and a huge bag of toss to go OUT THE DOOR TODAY! He said he will take anything I need to the Goodwill to make that step easier. Oh I love him so much. He didn't judge me, he just wanted to help me.
As far as the magazines, I haven't tackled them yet. I have all kinds, Somerset Pubs, CPS, decorating, etc. I was doing pretty well with them but they have crept up on me and piled up. I do like the idea of a give away but now Donna (again) and Martha have me doubting getting rid of them. ENABLERS!!!
Ok, back to the baby steps.. I can actually SEE my mantle and the brick I am thinking of painting so that has me excited again. I need to figure out whether certain furniture is keeper or toss and rethink how to arrange. I might need my Mom to come help with that or take pix for Holly.
xo

12 comments:

  1. Congrats for taking the first step! And PLEASE post if you list your Somerset mags on Etsy... I have a loving home for them :)

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  2. Good for you Heather. You should just post some things on Etsy.
    Hope you are feeling better about it all now you have had some support from your hubby.
    Have a great weekend
    Alison

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  3. Baby steps are all you need. I watched the Oprah show about hording and the person that was helping said you can easily accomplish a ton in 10 minutes a day. Everyday take two garbage bags...one for trash and one for donate and by the end of the week you have 14 bags. Not soo bad.

    I also recently purchased a book One year to an organized life by Regina Leeds. I have not read it yet...but I saw the title on another blog and thought it was worth a read. It breaks things out into baby steps week by week.

    Good luck...I have 5 bags for Goodwill ready to go and hope to do a few each week.

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  4. I saw the same Oprah and went down to my secret shame...the basement! I have done the 2 bags a day for 10 minutes (if I look to long I just become overwhelmed and upset!!!!). I took 6 bags to Good Will today and it felt great! Every time I think I need something, I remind myself that it is in the basement and not being used!! Why not give someone else a chance!! Good luck with your purge!!!

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  5. whenever you feel bad about your hoarding problem, think of me! and you didn't even know me when i was way worse. you can do it. i learned a lot from my organizer, and can give you tips. today i am tackling my art mountain in the family room. tomorrow, my studio, so that maybe some oaf the mountain can go where it belongs. it sucks. but i'm doing it one step at a time. like you said, baby steps. don't look at the whole picture -- it is paralyzing.

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  6. PS you can post about giveaways on your blog and just charge for postage. and don't forget about the power of yahoo groups! i got rid of tons of stuff before i moved just by announcing on c.ville. you could also charge like $5 per crammed priority flat rate envie plus $4.60 shipping. just a thought.

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  7. Shosh is right. If you ever think of the BIG PICTURE of what you must accomplish it will paralyze you. You've got to tackle one area at a time and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don't stop when you've finished an area. Move on to the next spot. The big thing is making the decision to get it under control. Well, first admitting it's a problem then committing to changing it. We CAN do it. We ARE doing it!! Yay us! I think we should talk more about just how important the Somersets are to you. Losing them might not bother you at all. If you never go back through them, I doubt you'd miss them.
    Speaking of Shosh....I wan't some of her rusty wire. And before you say anything. I really need it and I promise I will use it. Really.

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  8. I am a big magazine haorder too. They are everywhere! I finally started to go through and rip out pages I like and toss the rest on a few of them but what has been really nice is that I can take them by the bagful to the library and someone there always can use them. It makes it easier for me if I can just get rid of them quickly and cleanly. It makes me feel better about getting rid of them when I know someone else would like to see them. Do I really need eight years of Martha's?!! The only down side is I often come home with someone else's old magazines! But I read them and take them back quickly. Good luck with all of this!

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  9. Oh dear.. I went and took the test! It said I didn't have a problem with acquiring, but I have a problem with clutter and getting rid of things - that's true.. It is such a hassle!

    Here's what I've been doing about magazines tho. I got one of those big plastic under the bed storage boxes with a hinged lid. I have it packed full of magazines (plus a 2 drawer chest in the bedroom) I go thru them seasonally and pull out any pages that I want to keep, then take the remaining magazine (mostly ads) to the recycling center (we go weekly anyway). I have a few nice 3 ring binders and I put the pages I keep in plastic sleeves in the binders.

    It's time consuming and I have a long way to go, but it's a good way to reduce the amount of pages way down, but still keep the inspirations.

    I know some people "sell" magazines by saying they will fill a $8.50 flat rate box, if the buyer pays postage and maybe a little more for your effort.

    Good luck!

    Now that I have my zine out, I'm spending as much of the month of April as I can on domestic stuff.. like decluttering!

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  10. Good luck with your purging! Remember, a lot of information from magazines can be found on line. Or...you can peruse back issues at your local library! I rarely keep back issues. Once the new one comes in, I tear out any articles I haven't read from the previous month, as well as any recipes or coupons...then into the recycle pile it goes!
    There was something I heard in church years ago that's always stuck in my head. A priest said: "you know that coat in your closet? The one you haven't worn in four years? It isn't yours any more. It belongs to a poor man."
    Just think of the money you'll help Goodwill raise through the sale of items you don't really need.
    Again, good luck!
    And P.S.--if you do sell things on Etsy, reward yourself not with something else brought back into the home, but with a great dinner out with your sweet husband!

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  11. Heather, I am there with you.. getting rid of stuff ... when things make you feel bad and my stuff has gotten out of hand .. it is time to take action.. I like the way my house looks with less stuff.. I have room to think and to breathe and I do not miss the stuff that goes at all... good luck and keep taking those baby steps

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  12. I say tear out the magazine pages you want to keep slide them into clear binder pages and put them all in a 3 ring binder and recycle the rest! I have done this and I look through my binder for inspiration. A box of the page protectors are like 9.99$ for a bazillion of them at staples!

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